Nature of the beasts: George Stubbs's A Horse Frightened by a Lion

In the 1750s George Stubbs, usually celebrated for his pictures of racehorses, painted this vision of nature red in tooth and claw. The wild white horse resembles a spirit of purity and grace. In a craggy remote wilderness it is attacked by a lion that epitomises the savage and irrational. This painting is an early example of Romantic art. Stubbs uses his precise powers of observation and knowledge of nature to create a suggestive, poetic image of dark and terrible power Illustration: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool